Bookkeeper pleads guilty to theft and identity theft charges

Monday

Jun 24, 2013 at 1:45 PMJun 24, 2013 at 3:36 PM

A Central Point bookkeeper will spend three years in prison and was ordered to pay back more than a quarter-million dollars she embezzled from local business owners who entrusted her while unwittingly fueling her lavish lifestyle.

A Central Point bookkeeper will spend three years in prison and was ordered to pay back more than a quarter-million dollars she embezzled from local business owners who entrusted her while unwittingly fueling her lavish lifestyle.

Under a plea deal, Jodi Lynne Setzer, 42, pleaded guilty this morning in Jackson County Circuit Court to two counts of aggravated identity theft, six counts of aggravated theft and two counts of first-degree theft stemming from two different cases.

Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Mejia also ordered her to pay more than $263,000 to the bilked business owners who include a local event planner and a dentist who considered her a good friend.

Most thefts like these are tied to people with drug, alcohol or gambling problems, but those vices were not in Setzer's background, Jackson County Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Markiewicz said outside of court.

In Setzer's case, she skimmed money from her employers to live a few notches above what she could earn legitimately, Markiewicz said.

She had a child at one time in a Medford private school and had a pool built in her backyard, according to investigators.

"It was feeding a lifestyle that she really didn't have enough money for," Markiewicz said. "She's not the typical person to do this."

However, she forged a doctor's name to garner prescriptions for about 7,800 pills of hydrocodone over a three-year period beginning in 2010, investigators said.

Markiewicz declined to discuss the hydrocodone because it is part of another pending case. He declined to elaborate.

Her husband, Jason Setzer, has an Aug. 13 court hearing scheduled for a change of plea in his case. He faces four counts of aggravated identity theft for his alleged part in the alleged prescription medication scam, court records show.

— Mark Freeman

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